Tecno Phantom X2 Pro review

A potent triple camera setup with a pop-out portrait camera

The Tecno Phantom X2 Pro's spotlight feature is its camera setup. The pop-out telephoto/portrait camera module stands out in particular. The camera in question is motorized and pokes out of the phone's body automatically whenever in use. The lens has a 2.5x zoom level compared to the main camera, but due to the unusually wide F/1.5 aperture, Tecno is marketing it as a portrait cam rather than a telephoto cam for zooming purposes.

Before we go any further, let's go over the cameras and their respective sensors. The main 50MP camera is based on the Samsung S5KJNV sensor, which appears to be the ISOCELL GNV, a custom sensor previously used in the Vivo X80 series. It has a 1/1.3" size, 1.2µm pixels, employs an RGBW arrangement and uses ISOCELL 3.0 technology. The lens's front element (the outermost of the 7 lens elements) is made of glass.

Moving on to the 50MP, f/1.49, 65mm portrait camera - it uses a Samsung S5KJN1 tele sensor, commonly known as the Samsung ISOCELL JN1. That means 1/2.76" sensor size, 0.64µm pixels and ISOCELL 2.0 tech with Double Super PD autofocus and Tetrapixel RGB Bayer pixel arrangement.

The 13MP ultrawide camera is based on a Samsung S5K3L6 sensor, which is fairly uncommon. It has a 1/3" optical format and 1.12µm pixels.

It is important to note that all three rear cameras on the Tecno Phantom X2 Pro have autofocus. That's not something you see every day.

Then again, neither camera has Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), which seems like a bad omission.

Finally, we have the 32MP fixed-focus selfie camera. This is the same selfie camera as seen on the Tecno Camon 19 Pro. It uses a Samsung S5KGD2 sensor - 1/2.8" size and 0.8µm pixels with ISOCELL PLUS technology and a Tetrapixel RGB Bayer arrangement. It has a selfie LED flash as well.

The camera app is straightforward - aside from the full-auto photo mode being called AI Cam, things are mostly as expected. You can swipe down on the viewfinder to bring the top row of icons closer - something Techno calls one-handed mode.

Super Night mode is available across all three cameras on the Phantom X2 Pro.

Camera UI

Interestingly enough, there is no Pro camera mode, or at least we didn't manage to find one. In Film mode, you have different presets for short videos. Bokeh mode is available in Video mode if that's your thing.

Daylight image quality

The main 50MP camera captures solid photos. There is plenty of detail and nice sharpness. Algorithmic sharpening is noticeable on occasion but never over the top. The colors are nice and natural.

Some of the shots don't look tack sharp - at least not as sharp as we are used to seeing.

Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: 12.5MP main camera samples

Due to the Tetracell/Quad Bayer pixel arrangement, the camera stills comes out in about 12.5MP by default. You can shoot in 50MP mode instead. At 1:1 zoom level, it's hard to tell the two modes apart, which is a very good problem to have. 50MP shots are very consistent in color rendition, contrast and dynamic range compared to their 12.5MP counterparts.

Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: 50MP main camera samples

Pixel-peeping, however, quickly reveals that the 50MP shots have more actual fine detail, which the 12.5MP photos generally make up by using sharpening. The Phantom X2 Pro also captures 50MP shots very rapidly, which is yet another incentive to potentially use the mode. It seems to be worth the hassle if you are willing to deal with the bigger file size.

Expectedly, the main camera does great for portrait shots as well, with excellent subject detection, separation, and pleasing backgrounds.

Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: 12.5MP main camera portrait samples

Non-human subjects work just as well.

Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: 12.5MP main camera portrait samples

Speaking of portraits, however, the Phantom X2 Pro has its dedicated 50MP portrait camera. At an equivalent of 65mm, it is quite well suited for the task, too. The portrait shots it captures are good overall. Though, autofocus can misbehave at times and lead to some blurry faces. Be sure to capture a few shots, just in case.

Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: 12.5MP portrait camera samples

Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: 12.5MP portrait camera samples

Just like the main camera, the portrait one captures 12.5MP or so photos by default. You can also use it as a general zoom camera with a 2.5x factor compared to the main cam. It captures very clean and sharp photos, even better than the main camera.

Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: 12.5MP portrait camera samples

Color rendition is also quite consistent between the main and portrait cameras, which is great to see.

You can also force the portrait cam to capture 50MP stills. However, unlike the main camera, we don't particularly like full-res 50MP stills on the portrait snapper.

Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: 50MP portrait camera samples

There is hardly any bonus in terms of detail; for some reason, the 50MP shots even look softer and slightly blurrier on average. Plus, a noticeable red hue persists across most of the 50MP portrait camera samples we took.

Since the portrait camera has an extra wide aperture, it's able to provide a naturally defocused background behind subjects at close to midrange distances - even without the portrait mode on.

Natural bokeh on the portrait camera

Before we move on, we captured our standard test posters with both 50MP snappers of the Tecno Phantom X2 Pro in both 12.5MP and 50MP modes. You can pixel-peep away to your heart's content.

Tecno PHANTOM X2 Pro against the Xiaomi 12 and the OnePlus Nord 2T in our Photo compare tool

Portrait cam: Tecno PHANTOM X2 Pro against the Xiaomi 12 and the OnePlus Nord 2T in our Photo compare tool

The 13MP ultrawide camera also captures surprisingly clean and detailed shots. Colors are also nice and natural and consistent with the other two cameras.

Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: 13MP ultrawide camera samples

There is a bit of corner softness here as well, but nothing too dramatic.

Since it can autofocus, the ultrawide camera doubles nicely as a macro cam as well. Here are some macro samples.

Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: 13MP ultrawide camera macro samples

Selfies

The 32MP selfie camera doesn't fail to impress either. It delivers plenty of detail and great sharpness with pleasing skin tones.

Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: 32MP selfie camera samples

Since 32MP is a bit excessive in terms of resolution and file size in our book, you can just as easily shoot selfie portraits without any effect applied to get just as great 8MP stills.

Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: 8MP selfie camera portrait samples

While we can't find any particular, glaring faults with the selfie cam on the Phantom X2 Pro, we just wish it had autofocus like the rest of the phone's cameras. That would have really pushed things to the next level.

Video quality

The Tecno Phantom X2 Pro can capture up to 4K@60fps video from its two rear 50MP cameras, while the ultrawide and selfie are limited to 1080p. These videos get saved in a standard AVC video stream at 50 Mbps in 4K and a pretty stable frame count, plus a stereo 48kHz AAC audio track, wrapped inside an MP4 container. There is no option for h.256 (HEVC) video capture on the Phantom X2 Pro.

The main camera captures solid 4K videos. Detail is plenty, and colors look nice and natural.

Dynamic range isn't amazing, and the contrast is a bit too harsh. The image appears too sharp and overprocessed. Some might still enjoy the look, though.

Just like with stills, we tend to like the 4K capture of the portrait camera a bit more than the main one. These clips generally look cleaner with a bit finer detail. Colors are just as good as on the main cam with natural and mature processing.

Just like on the main camera, contrast is a bit too high on the portrait cam. Nothing excessive, though.

Here is how the main and portrait cameras stack up against the competition in our extensive video compare database.

Tecno PHANTOM X2 Pro against the Xiaomi 12 and the OnePlus Nord 2T in our Video compare tool

Portrait cam: Tecno PHANTOM X2 Pro against the Xiaomi 12 and the OnePlus Nord 2T in our Video compare tool

1080p videos from the ultrawide camera are good, but not spectacular in any way. Detail is decent. Colors are a bit more vibrant here, but they still look good. Contrast is a bit on the higher end once again, and dynamic range could be better.

The same applies to the 1080p selfie videos. The detail is definitely there, but both contrast and saturation are way too high to the overall detriment of the picture.

As we mentioned, there is no autofocus on the selfie cam, but a pretty liberal and forgiving focus plane generally means your face will be in focus most of the time at arm's length. Plus, the lack of focus hinting is a bonus when it comes to how stable the footage is.

Speaking of which, the Phantom X2 Pro has excellent digital stabilization, which works across all of the cameras. You can see it in action in the following playlist.

Low-light camera quality

The main camera on the Phantom X2 Pro performs well in low-light conditions. There is plenty of detail in the shots and hardly any noise. Colors are nice and accurate, and dynamic range is decent.

Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: 12.5MP main camera low-light samples

Light sources are a bit blown-out and could be handled slightly better overall. That's where the dedicated Super Night mode steps in. It extends capture time by three to four seconds but does result in noticeably better-contained light sources and less clipping in dark areas.

Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: 12.5MP main camera night mode samples

At first glance, there appears to be slightly more detail in the night mode shots compared to the regular ones. Upon further inspection, however, much of that appears to be artificial sharpening more than anything else. Even so, the shots don't look oversharpened or otherwise overprocessed. Tecno managed to find a good balance.

The 50MP portrait 2.5x camera remains competent in low light but does struggle noticeably more than the main snapper. Shots come out darker and a bit softer overall. Though, noise is still not an issue and detail, while not amazing, is plenty.

Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: 12.5MP portrait camera low-light samples

It is perhaps interesting to note that the 2.5x portrait camera has consistently different white balance and color reproduction compared to the main cam.

Super Night mode is pretty beneficial on the portrait cam. It sharpens the image noticeably and boosts resolved detail. Light sources are also handled a lot better. We would definitely recommend using this mode in low-light conditions.

Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: 12.5MP portrait camera night mode samples

On to the ultrawide camera, which expectedly struggles in low-light conditions. The photos it produces are pretty soft, especially near the edges of the frame.

Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: 13MP ultrawide camera low-light samples

On a more positive note, detail isn't half bad for an ultrawide. Colors are also realistic and pretty consistent with the main cam.

Super Night mode has a minimal effect on the ultrawide since the auto might mode that already triggers on its own in Ai camera mode is aggressive enough to already deliver most of the effect.

Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: 13MP ultrawide camera night mode samples

The 32MP selfie camera remains competent in low-light conditions. Detail is good. Skin texture is mostly lost to softness and noise suppression, but some remnants remain. Skin tones, on the other hand, look very nice and natural. There is a selfie LED flash for really low-light shots.

Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: 32MP selfie camera low-light samples

Super Night mode is also available for the selfie and produces 8MP stills. While the extra processing and image stacking fix up certain things like light sources pretty well, night mode tends to totally destroy skin texture and complexion. We would probably shy away from using it on the selfie cam.

Tecno Phantom X2 Pro: 8MP selfie camera night mode samples

4K video from the main camera is solid, even if not amazing in any particular way. There is plenty of detail, and light sources are very well handled.

On a less positive note, there is a bit more noise on uniform surfaces than we would have liked to see, and the video is a bit dark for our taste as well. Neither is a deal-breaking deficiency, though.

The portrait camera captures very similar low-light videos to the main one - maybe a tad noisier and a bit darker. Still perfectly decent overall.

The ultrawide camera is pretty messy when capturing 1080p low-light video. There are some focus issues. Everything looks pretty soft. Light sources are blown out.

On the plus side, noise is well-contained for an ultrawide, and the colors look good.